Interview with Brian Baumgartner, Kevin on The Office

The Office's Brian Baumgartner on Playing "Special Kevin"

So many of the funniest moments in the season finale of The Office came courtesy of Brian Baumgartner as Kevin, whose "special" relationship with Amy Ryan toed the politically incorrect line to hilarious effect. And Kevin's profile has only continued to grow this Summer, as he's starring in this year's series of Office webisodes. So it's no surprise that Baumgartner was a pretty popular guy at NBC's party at the TCA press tour. But I managed to snag a few minutes alone with him to talk about the finale, the show's rabid fans, and his hopes for his relationship with Holly. Some highlights:

On the "special Kevin" story: "It was sort of a joke that somebody said has been set up for four years, but the way that [Amy Ryan] played it was just so real and so earnest, and the the writers also. I felt like we were really successful in playing Kevin the way that he is, and it was just the notion of this idea being brought up that enabled people to have a different perception."

On hearing Ryan would be returning: "I was so excited. She's fantastic. I think she fits in really well. She gets the show. She's a smart, smart actor. I think we're really lucky to have her."

On whether Kevin will, indeed, "totally bang Holly": "I am totally going to bang her — I hope in the first episode so we can let that relationship go as long as possible. But we'll see."

To hear Baumgartner's thoughts on the webisodes and his show's passionate fans, just

.

On working on the webisodes: "There's less money . . . We had the crew who work on our show, just a smaller version of it. So it is a little more guerrilla warfare-like, sort of getting stuff on the fly and trying to do stuff quicker. I think there may be some consideration given to closer shots with the idea that people are watching it on a smaller screen. But you know, it's pretty much the same."

On why The Office has such passionate fans: "I think it comes from the fact that our show was doing something different and unique from the very beginning. The people who got it got it and loved that we were doing something different, and it wasn't the cookie cutter same thing. They got it early on, before the 10 million people found it, and they were really psyched about that, and so I think that's part of it. I think we were also, quite frankly, pretty accessible online, which people really dug, especially early on."

On his upcoming return trip to Scranton: "I sheepishly agreed to do this Celebrity Family Feud game. We won 50,000 for this local Scranton charity. That was so great — it really made it worth the experience of doing it. So I'm going to go back [to Scranton] and have a good time."